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Tuesday, June 14, 2011

They paved the way...

They paved the way…

A while back I ran across a Beer Advocate forum entry that asked the question, The modern craft beer and homebrewing scene would not exist without “___________” and why? The answer could be a brewery, a person, a philosophy, etc. You only have one choice.

I found this to be a very interesting question of which I wasn’t sure that I knew the answer. My initial thought was Sam Adams based on my own personal experience. But what happened before Sam Adams was on the map? What is the exact time frame of the craft brew renaissance and the subsequent surge in craft breweries? I have many questions of which I do not know the answer. So I venture forth into the vast land of infinite wisdom we like to call the internet. I will answer these questions and give you my analysis of what spawned the current craft beer movement. This segment will be much like Hop University, split up over multiple posts with each new subject. For the most part I will attempt to address the subjects in chronological order.

Before I did any research on this, my answer was Sam Adams. I’ve already professed my love for Sam Adams (Boston Beer Co.) so this should be no surprise. This answer is based solely on my own experience. The first craft brew I tried was a Sam Adams Sampler, of which was that first beautiful Cream Stout. The craft brew bug had bitten me and as you should be able to tell that SOB has still got a hold of me. After that sampler, I had confidence that whatever I purchased from Sam Adams would be a good product. This confidence led to me to try pretty much every beer they had available and introduced me to tons of different styles. Styles I hadn’t heard of, nor would have purchased otherwise. My homebrewing addiction was spawned by a Sam Adams commercial advertising the Long Shot competition. I did not have any exposure to homebrewing prior to seeing that commercial. I, as I’m sure anyone who hasn’t seen it done, assumed homebrewers were mad scientist and if they weren’t careful they would kill a whole party with a bacterial infected homebrew. It was scary stuff. But on TV there it was, some regular looking people making beer on their kitchen stoves. I know you’re not supposed to believe anything you see on TV, but after that commercial it all seemed possible. Could I really make beer that tasted as good, or dare I say better, than the big boys? I didn’t think so at the time, but I was still going to give it hell. Here I am 3 years later, elbow deep in homebrewing and two refrigerators full of craft brew. Damn bug.

You can visit the Beer Advocate thread here and see everyone’s in-depth responses. Below I’ve compiled a summary of the popular responses in no particular order.

Sierra Nevada – Ken Grossman

Boston Beer Co. – Jim Koch

Anchor Brewing – Fritz Maytag

Jimmy Carter – for signing the bill to legalize homebrewing in 1978.

Michael Jackson – The author not the singer

Yuengling Brewing Co

Charlie Papzian

US military bases in Germany

Jack McCaulife – first micro brewery

Franklin Roosevelt - for repealing Prohibition

I will be posting information on a variety of these subjects in later posts so stay tuned.